“Take Casey Olson from Fresno,” Robinson tells MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) while guiding his car through the Bay Area while hot on a rant. “He has more sponsors. He does more radio interviews. He’s in the mother [expletive] magazines. You know why? Because he knows Chuck Liddell.

“I’m out here trying to get my own fights. I can’t get a call back, but it’s not stopping me from busting my ass.”

That, in a nutshell, is what you’ll get during a half-hour conversation with “Fallen Angel,” an up-and-coming lightweight who has fought most recently in the Palace Fighting Championship, on an otherwise calm Tuesday night.

There is great intensity and intelligence. And opinions. Plenty of opinions. He’ll even warn you.

“I’m not one who won’t name other fighters,” Robinson said. “I’ll tell you what I think.”

That passion mixed with motivation instilled from a grandmother leading a large and incongruous family have led Robinson to a 4-2 record and near blisters from dialing the phone looking for more fights.

Even though Olson is known as “The Underdog,” Robinson sees himself filling that role doing a mostly one-man job training, marketing and selling himself as a fighter who can outthink opponents as much as he can outfight them.

And, he’s not shy about sharing his feelings.

“A lot of people don’t know this, but 80 percent of what I do, I do myself,” Robinson said. “I mostly train myself, I’ve never been with the big teams. I’m around a lot of the big-time people, but I’m putting in my own time and my own work. I’ll outwork anybody.”

Creole at heart

Robinson’s family is simultaneously large, interesting and difficult. As a kid, he moved around from San Francisco to Oakland to Texas to Louisiana to North Carolina. There were several constants: a maternal grandmother who ran the house, a mother who was committed to education and a father who had a strong history in athletics, both as a boxer and a football player.

Robinson’s father, though, also showed skills as a photographer, which would help mold Robinson’s desire to be an artist later in life. His parents’ mentality also helped him commit to education from an early age.

His educational interests as he left high school in San Francisco and onto (several) colleges were as varied as his early addresses: criminology, zoology, hematology and then, finally, simply knowledge in general. His transcript includes classes at University of California-Davis and San Francisco State, and he was even accepted to Yale before leaving education for the working world.

Which leads, of course, to another list. Robinson worked in a pharmacy filling prescriptions, selling his own artwork, odd jobs in a chocolate store and even a job at Victoria’s Secret. There was a stint on the narcotics force of a smaller California city police department, as well.

Robinson’s past underlines his fighting personality. That is, he’s a hard worker, enduring whatever training he must and contacting whomever he must to break further into the world of mixed martial arts.

“I had plenty that I was doing with my life,” Robinson said. “But I gave up everything to do fighting.”

Soap box

In 2005, Robinson was at a party and got into a fight. Not at all uncommon, of course, but this time there was a catch, and it started his MMA career.

Someone at the party alerted Frank Shamrock, who was running a gym in San Jose, Calif. Soon after, Robinson got a call inviting him to come visit the gym. One of the other visitors there that day was Bob Cook, a now-top trainer who also owns a career 5-0 MMA record with a 1-0 showing in the UFC.

“We went at it for 30 or 40 minutes,” Robinson said. “He choked me, and I was pissed off. People around there said, ‘Do you know who that is? That’s Frank Shamrock’s top student.’ I didn’t care, and we’ve had fun going after each other ever since.

“I still haven’t gotten him though.”

Robinson has earned his victories, starting with a Gladiator Challenge show in November 2005. From there, Robinson has done much of his own training while watching others he considers inferior fighters rise because of their attachment to big names, he says.

“I pick things up from just watching martial arts movies and watching guys train – and not wanting to get beat up,” Robinson said. “I go out there and outthink these lazy mother [expletive].”

If he makes weight, Robinson’s next chance could come at Roy Jones Jr.’s hybrid MMA/boxing event March 21 in Pensacola, Fla., Robinson said. If not, he is at least guaranteed a shot at the PFC lightweight title against former WEC challenger Carlo Prater at PFC 13 on May 8.

Whatever his next fight, it’s likely Robinson set it up himself. That has been his career – relying on his own smarts, motivation and business savvy to elbow his way into the MMA world. One opinion at a time.

Award-winning newspaper reporter Kyle Nagel is the lead features writer for MMAjunkie.com. His weekly “Fight Path” column focuses on the circumstances that led fighters to a profession in MMA. Know a fighter with an interesting story? Email us at news [at] mmajunkie.com.

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